When working with new digital media and the internet, one always presumes free and open means just that – easily accessible information, equally available to those that use the technologies. The reality, of course, is different. In the past weeks, there have been discussionsevolvingaround the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), which released a statement to introduce new rules that would allow ISPs to charge companies a premium rate for content, or an Internet “fast lane”. This would mean that certain companies with a larger financial backdrop can pay to have their sites working faster, while non-profit internet sites would neccessarily be slower and less accessible. This obviously sparked a heated conversation on net neutrality. The concept of net neutrality was originally introduced by Tim Wu, 41, a law professor at Columbia University, and it basically states that “The cable and telephone companies that control important parts of the plumbing of the Internet shouldn’t restrict how the rest of us use it.”

Jeff Sommer spoke to Mr. Wu for a New York times article, in which he tries to find out what exactly net neutrality might mean in future. The full article is available here.

Last Monday the FCC chairman Tom Wheeler responded to the waves of criticism and revised the proposal, as Roger Yustated on USA Today. The other FCC commissioners will vote on the revised proposal tomorrow.